The Baby Brain Connection / Armed with new research on developing brain structure, social workers can help fix troubled baby/parent relationships

Providing mothers with access to health education during and after pregnancy helps reduce child mortality. In Nigeria, the Mamacare program teaches pregnant women about nutrition, hygiene, and infant health at clinics across Lagos State. The program, which is affiliated with WellBeing Foundation Africa, uses a network of midwives, who share experiences, teach lessons, and encourage the women to give birth at clinics.

Community Health Workers in Richmond County work to reduce barriers - including employment, education, smoking, food security or housing - that may contribute to the likelihood of infant mortality. Using the Community HUB Pathways Model to minimize significant sources of stress in a woman’s life, they are helping drive down infant mortality rates in Ohio, particularly for women and babies of color.

Through programs across the country, nurses, social workers, or trained mentors offer support to new or expectant parents, imparting skills to help them become better teachers for their children. Through regular home visits with the families, these programs are working to close an achievement gap between rich and poor children that starts as early as just nine months into a child's life.

A shortage of incubators in a Bogota hospital was causing rampant infections among newborns. Kangaroo care, a system where the infant's mother is employed as a human incubator, was created and solved the shortage problem.

First 5 — a group of public agencies created by California’s Proposition 10 tobacco tax — provide funding for preschools, homeless family housing, pediatric dental and mental health care and infant-mother home visits to help parents in need. Home visit groups funded by First 5, like Welcome Baby, serve more than 15,000 families a year and provide necessary supplies like cribs and car seats as well as check-ins for child development.

The USA wants to reduce its infant mortality rate by educating parents about how to keep their child safe while they sleep. Baby Box Co has put together boxes for new parents with tutorials, baby supplies and a mattress, to help prevent infant death.

Home visit programs, where family support workers meet with expecting and new parents, are at risk of not getting funding. Advocates stress the importance of these programs for improving parenting skills, providing a confidant for parents, and helping reach children before they are already struggling.

Cleveland has an alarmingly high rate of infant mortality, there are a large number of infant deaths from SIDS, sleep deaths, and problems stemming from being born prematurely. Programs across Cleveland are growing in order to help address these problems and better serve pregnant mothers, especially the populations that are particularly at-risk.

At St. John Hospital in Detroit, the principles of cultural sensitivity and collaboration—as well as lots of fundraising—have boosted previously low breastfeeding rates by black mothers.

Expectant mothers encounter numerous hurdles during pregnancy and childbirth. A pilot project in Mumbai called mMitra sends weekly voice messages to new and expecting mothers, providing critical information and advice on how to maintain their own health and that of their child. Hundreds of women have registered for the program, helping not only to increase the number of healthy pregnancies and births, but creating indirect impacts such as eliminating taboos against morning sickness and raising awareness of the importance of women's health in general.